Urgh what kind of creature / rodent / bird is leaving these droppings

[96thstreet]

I have a storage space in the house I hardly use but have heard increasingly weird noises coming from.

Im terrified of rodents so have very very gingerly cleared space. There’s clear evidence of rats (shredded books/cardboard), but there is also feathers and then this, absolutely everywhere! It looks like kernels of corn, it’s in heaps all along the edges of the walls.

There are rafters from the roof and access for a whole host of whatever.

any idea ?

I think rat is the most likely and I used to keep pet ones.

Eh? Shrews are absolutely tiny, what rodent is smaller than them? They eat insects, I’ve never heard of them trying to eat another mammal!

Sorry to say I'm pretty sure that's rat poop. I have pet rats and it definitely looks like their droppings.

I would also guess rat, with them passing the undigested kernels of corn.

Do any of your neighbours keep chickens?

It’s BATS ITS BATS ITS BATS

Christ one just flew out of the rafters and went mental trying to get out of the room

Maybe rats and bats

god I’m going to burn my house down

I think rat and bat droppings look similar so it's probably just bats OP.
But they are a protected species so check carefully what you can do about them.

Bats!
Oh dear. They're protected, aren't they?

@FictionalCharacter shrews are very territorial and will attack other small rodents. Although you're right, they will be same-sized or bigger, not smaller. We live next to farmland and have heard/ seen more than one shrew fight. The worst ever was directly above our bed, only inches away from our heads in the sloping eaves. The screeching was terrible. That was the moment DH cracked and put down poison.

Bat droppings are smaller than rat poop imo.

Wow! What are you going to do? Is it law that the council have to be informed? Or bat protection league, whomever.

It's illegal to disturb a bat roost. Really big fines.
Contact your local wildlife group/bat society for advice. If you don't have loads of bat poo it might be something like a maternity roost so they're not there all the time.
I suspect you might have more than one kind of animal roosting) living in your roof space. Bats wouldn't hoard corn. Squirrels might?

https://www.bats.org.uk/
Useful information here.

We have a known roost in our actual loft

This is sort of a side room built on top of an extension which we only use for storage - I suspect they are getting in under the eaves as the roof ceiling isn’t boarded out/plastered at the roof level.

I don’t mind them being in the loft but this room is literally next to my daughters bedroom and they are making a racket at night. I’ll have to call the bat people again

At least its not rats OP. Rats in the house is my worst nightmare 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

In another house I lived in I was relaxing on the sofa one night and heard something in the fireplace. Something thudded and scurried away from the fireplace, it was so quick I just saw a greyish thing. I squawked like a loon and jumped up on the sofa as it ran behind a chair. Man was I scared to shift off that sofa for a long time! I phoned a friend at the pub but we couldn’t find anything. Turned out it was a surface rat 🤢. There was a hole in my floorboards and the local council sorted it but, shudder.

That sounds truly appalling.

@EatCrow what's a surface rat? Googled it but nothing came up I've never heard of them

The woman who came out to sort the pest control used that expression, I’d never heard it before either. Apparently it was just one rat moving around the (small local area - our road). Years later the neighbours and I saw quite a few rats bobbing around, even in broad daylight, so I assume they were all surface rats too!

Make sure that there is no way any bats can get into your daughters bedroom, they can carry horrible diseases and a small amount in this country carry rabies.

Oh how lovely. Your roost is obviously doing well

You must have a lot of dropping in your loft. <Shudder>

Bats droppings are small - at least the ones in our loft are. They're about the size of a grain of rice. They crumble if you crush them, which is the difference between mice and bad droppings according to the chap who knew!

You can't officially do anything about them, but if you leave a light on in the loft on a warm evening they're likely to find somewhere else. I'm rather fond of our colony so I am leaving them there.

Dusk in my garden is like something from a vampire movie, bats swooping everywhere

Droppings in the first photo look like mouse to me. Small hard pellets that don't crumble when you squish them between finger and thumb. Rat would be similar but bigger.

Bat droppings are mostly insect fragments so they crumble into dust when you squish them. Shrew droppings can be similar but wouldn't normally be in large numbers.

I have a few in my garden it’s wonderful. Like they are dancing.

I know they are noisy and messy but your incredibly fortunate